For all things Japan

Japanese Word of the Week: Food

One of the most important things to know how to say on any trip is the word “food”. Not only do you have to eat to sustain yourself, meals are often one of the most enjoyable travel experiences you can have.

The Japanese word for food is Tabemono.

To pronounce this correctly, let’s first break it down into syllables:

Ta-be-mo-no.

As you can see, you have four separate sounds.

The first sound, “ta” is pronounced like ta in taco (yes, that’s an English loaner word but I’m pretty sure we all know how to pronounce that (delicious) word).

The second sound, “be” is pronounced like be in the word bell.

The third sound, “mo” is pronounced like mo in the English word mow (as in your lawn).

The fourth sound, “no”, is pronounced very similarly to the English word no.

Now put all of the sounds together and keep repeating the word until you get more comfortable with it. Before you know it, you’ll have it!